Hey everybody,
It's always a good idea (well, if you're philosophically inclined, that is)
to check out alternative viewpoints at least once in a while in order to
challenge your own cherished beliefs and deeply held assumptions. For
example, some environmentalists who consume nothing but a steady diet of
Greenpeace literature in their mental lives are bound to have some pretty
tightly wound views bordering on ideological dogma. These people should
get out more, intellectually and literarily speaking. (And of course, the
converse is true for non-environmentalists as well.)
My own impression of our recent debate here in enviroethics on the subject
of global warming is: hey, emotions are part of the moral mix, for better
or worse. Only hyper-rationalists like Tom Regan and Peter Singer believe
otherwise. (That's a little environmental ethics humor there. fwiw. ha
ha.) I suppose a few flames here and there are a small price to pay for
some passionate discussion--but in agreement with Lisa D., I remind
everyone that this *is* a public forum, one that is publicly archived on
the Internet. Right now every school kid in the world with an ISP account
and a web browser can do research for their homework assignments on global
warming by looking into our informal little discussions here. Again, FWIW.
Chris L. wrote:
>Interesting contribution, Jim.
>I found it a trifle bland for my taste. The trouble is, that the
>optimistic scenario
>for one sector of humans, where they look forward to a bright future where
>their
>dreams and hopes become reality, in actual Reality (i.e. the world we all
>share)
>denies the chance of another sector of humans getting their hopes
>materialised.
>Sorry to pick on the Americans again, but the 'American Dream' means a
>nightmare
>for the Maldive Islanders, for instance.
Hey, that's okay--in my humble opinion, anyone here is free at any time to
pick on Americans, so no need to apologize to me. :-)
But once again one of Chris's thought-provoking posts has led me to reflect
upon, in this case, 'all things American'; and I came up with the following
links from The American Outlook, the house organ of the Hudson Institute.
I hope that these will interest even the most terminally despairing among
us:
"Global Warming-Boon for Mankind?" by Dennis T. Avery.
http://www.hudson.org/American_Outlook/articles_bin/Global%20Warming.htm
Summary: "Global warming may be coming, but if it does, it won't be as
extreme as previously thought. And it might actually be a boon for the
environment."
"Piercing the Gloom and Doom," by Herbert I. London.
http://www.hudson.org/American_Outlook/articles_sp99/london.htm
Abstract: "Popular fear-mongers never let the facts ruin a good scare story."
and
"The Decline of Moral Competence," by Digby Anderson.
http://www.hudson.org/American_Outlook/articles_sp99/anderson.htm
Précis: "Attacks on science show how far authority has declined in the
West. That is the real scientific scare story of the day."
Now, LET IT BE KNOWN that I don't agree with everything said in these
articles. I'm not even sure I agree with *any* of it. But that's my
standard, usual disclaimer. "No warranty expressed or implied; Your
mileage may vary." I just think it's helpful for all of us to get out a
little bit more (intellectually speaking), every now and then--especially
those self-styled, card carrying environmentalists among us:
>Chris wrote:
>***
>As someone mentioned on the radio, we are not living upon this planet
>as if we intended to remain living here. We're behaving as if we're just
>here for a weekend party. I'm old enough, and without children, personally
>not to have to care about the mess that's being made, but I'm horrified
>and appalled by what I see happening nonetheless ...it's the Titanic and
>the Iceberg allegory isn't it ...a few of us can see the fucking iceberg and
>that we are going to hit, but all the rest, the vast majority, are much too
>preoccupied with 'having fun' to pay any attention...the hour is getting
>late.
>
>****
>Wow! We actually have an environmentalist on this list!! I mean I know that
>others on the list probably have similar sentiments, but so often we just have
>a bunch of people listing the Latin genus and species names of a few creatures
>and the rest of us just standing around approvingly saying, "Now that is a
>knowledgeable scientist!" Knowing genuses and species names won't do much
>good when humanity wipes most of them off the face of the earth!
>
>Peace for All Beings
>Jamey
And before anyone starts ranting and spewing ad hominem attacks on the
Hudson Institute as some neo-conservative, far-right wise use bunch of
think-tank wackos, here is their official statement on their own ideology:
"Ideology:
Hudson Institute does not advocate an expressed ideology or
political position. In general, the institution's viewpoint embodies
skepticism about conventional wisdom, an appreciation of technology's role
in achieving progress, optimism about solving problems, a futurist
orientation, a commitment to individuality and free institutions, and a
respect for the importance of religion, culture, and values in human
affairs."
As far as I can tell, there's absolutely nothing in that paragraph about
any kind of official policy on sodomizing animals--nada, zilch, nothing,
zero. So you can nip *that* potential criticism right there in the bud. .
. :-)
And if nothing else--check out the list of failed predictions below, which
comes from the middle article by Herbert London cited above. I found them
interesting, anyway. ;-)
Jim T.
ps. and lighten up everybody! I'd say it's about time for my annual
posting of the Jerry Springer "Philsosophers Show" transcript. . . .
<smile>
************************
from "Piercing the Gloom and Doom" by Herbert I.
London http://www.hudson.org/American_Outlook/articles_sp99/london.htm
Fooling the Experts
The future is not predetermined-far from it. Although clues in the present
can help us anticipate the future, the human factor often makes fools of
those who too confidently make predictions. The following are just a few
examples of experts who were sure about their pessimistic predictions.
In 1927, film producer Harry Warner said, "Who the hell wants to hear
actors talk?"
In 1905, Grover Cleveland said, "Sensible and responsible women do not want
to vote."
In the 1830s, Dionysius Lardner, author of The Steam Engine Explained and
Illustrated, said, "Rail travel at high speeds is not possible because
passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia."
When told of Robert Fulton's steamboat, Napoleon said, "What, sir, would
you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire
under her deck? I pray you, excuse me, I have not the time to listen to
such nonsense."
On the eve of World War II, Admiral Clark Woodward said, "As far as sinking
a ship with a bomb is concerned, it can never be done."
Thomas Edison said, "Just as certain as death, George Westinghouse will
kill a customer within six months after he puts in an electric system of
any size," and "the phonograph has no commercial value at all."
"This telephone has too many shortcomings to be considered as a means of
communication," said the president of Western Union in 1876. "The device is
of inherently no value to us."
The president of Michigan Savings Banks advised Henry Ford's lawyer not to
invest in the Ford Motor Company because, he said, "The horse is here to
stay, the automobile is a novelty."
In 1921, radio pioneer David Sarnoff said, "The wireless music box has no
imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in
particular?"
In 1926, Lee DeForest, inventor of the vacuum tube, said, "While
theoretically and technically television may be feasible, commercially and
financially I consider it an impossibility."
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible," said Lord Kelvin,
president of the British Royal Society and one of the nineteenth century's
greatest experts on thermodynamics.
"A rocket will never be able to leave the earth's atmosphere," stated the
New York Times in 1936.
"Space travel is utter bilge," said a British astronomer in 1956.
"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom," said
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Robert Milliken in 1923.
"Taking the best left-handed pitcher in baseball and converting him into a
right fielder is one of the dumbest things I ever heard," said Tris Speaker
in 1919. He was talking about Babe Ruth.
In 1929, Yale economist Irving Fisher said, "Stock prices have reached what
looks like a permanently high plateau." Two weeks later, the stock market
crashed.
MGM executive Irving Thalberg had this for Louis B. Mayer regarding Gone
With the Wind: "Forget it, Louie, no Civil War picture ever made a nickel."
The director of Blue Book Modeling Agency advised Marilyn Monroe in 1944,
"You better learn secretarial work or else get married."
"You ain't going nowhere, son. You ought to go back to driving a truck,"
said Jim Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, in firing Elvis Presley
after a performance in 1954.
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out anyway,"
said the president of Decca Records, rejecting the Beatles in 1962.
Darryl Zanuck observed, in 1946, "Television won't last because people will
soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night."
The chairman of IBM said, "I think there is a world market for about five
computers," in 1943.
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home,"
said the president of Digital Electronic Corporation in 1977.
"We will bury you," predicted Nikita Kruschev in 1958.
Visionary designer Buckminster Fuller said, in 1966, "By 2000, politics
will simply fade away. We will not see any political parties."
Social scientist David Riesman declared, in 1967, "If anything remains more
or less unchanged, it will be the role of women."
And here's one for those who worry that the world will end in the year
2000: Henry Adams said, in 1903, "My fingers coincide in fixing 1950 as the
year when the world must go smash. The world is coming to an end in 1950."
As Fats Waller, one of the great philosophers of the twentieth century,
observed, "One never knows, do one?" That is an excellent adage for
futurists.
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